Fading Hope
by SugoiShawn
Summary: While hunting horcruxes, the Golden Trio stays at 12 Grimmauld Place where Harry finds a mysterious letter about a girl named Scarlett.


Harry looked through Sirius' room and felt his eyes began to get teary. Less than two years ago he had seen his godfather die right in front of his eyes and he could do nothing.

Harry picked up a letter off the ground that was written by his mother. A smile spread across his tired face as he read it. It was so sweet. This was what his life could've been like.

Harry set it down and sighed. How was he going to move on with his life after all this was finished? He had no family left and many of the people he cared about were dead.

He was about to leave the room when something caught his eye; a paper sticking out between the mattress and it's frame.

"What's that?" Harry wondered aloud.

He hesitantly walked towards the paper and slid it out. It was an envelope addressed from a home in Salisbury.

His hands slowly pulled a letter from the envelope and he read the short text aloud: "Scarlett is doing well. She hasn't discovered the truth yet. She ask who you and Marlene are every once in awhile, but she normally quiets down about it after a few minutes. Attached is her picture. -Mary"

"Scarlett? Who's that?" Harry wondered, but was quickly interrupted by a shout from the other room.

Ron and Hermione had found what R.A.B. stood for. It was the name of Sirius' brother.

After asking Kreacher to find Mundungus Fletcher, the man who stole the horcrux locket, Harry decided to ask Hermione about the girl.

"Hermione?" he said with a questioning tone.

"What's up?" She asked, her gaze fixed on Harry. "Have you heard of anyone named Scarlett?"

"Scarlet? Scarlett who?"

"I'm not quite sure to be quite honest…" Harry pulled the letter out of his pocket and handing it to Hermione who quickly skimmed through it.

Ron leaned over Hermione's shoulder to read it too.

Ron gasped. "Marlene? I've heard mum talk about her before. She was part of the order. Died awhile ago if I'm remembering correctly."

"Harry, was Sirius ever married?" Hermione looked as if she had an idea brewing.

"Not that I'm aware of. Hermione, what're you thinking?"

"Well, I may be totally off, but what if Sirius was in a relationship? It explains the phrase 'you and Marlene.'" She paused in thought.

"What if…?!" Ron's voice filled with excitement.

"Sirius had a child," Hermione filled in.

"That's… that's insane… wouldn't Sirius have told me if he did?"

"But if he'd thought it through, you'd want to look for her."

"Which would pull her into danger," Ron added.

"You're saying I-i could still have family out there?"

"Possibly, mate."

Hermione silently nodded her head in agreement.

"We should go find out. We have time to kill. Kreacher will be gone for a while I'm guessing."

"We shouldn't go all the way out there if we aren't one hundred percent sure," Ron seemed skeptical of this whole idea, but he wasn't denying it could be true.

"We could use the telephone," Hermione proposed.

"Oh god," Ron muttered, remembering the time he had tried to call Harry once.

"Hermione come with me. Ron can wait here for Kreacher."

Ron groaned, disappointed at his missed adventure.

Hermione quickly let Harry out the door and to the nearest telephone booth.

"How do we find the number? I haven't used one in-"

"Already got it," Hermione interrupted as she flipped through the yellow pages of a phone book.

Harry dialed the number, his fingers shaking.

The phone picked up on the third dial. "Hello?" the voice asked.

"Hi. I was wondering if you knew someone named Scarlett."

"Yes, she lives here…"

"Well, I know this is insane-"

"Trust me, I've had my fill of insane."

Harry could hear the sound of moment on the other end, hoping the lady wouldn't hang up, Harry shouted, "Wait!"

She said nothing, but the hum of the phone was still there.

"Is- are- do-" Harry stuttered.

"Speak boy," the voice was impatient and annoyed.

"Is… um…" Harry couldn't speak, he was too scared of the answer to come.

Hermione grabbed the phone from harry's hand. "Is scarlett related to Sirius and Marlene?"

She quickly handed the phone back to Harry.

"Who's asking?" the voice asked, skepticism obvious in her voice.

"My name's Harry. Harry Potter. Sirius is-was," Harry caught himself, "my godfather."

"You can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you... Almost seventeen years ago, I went to an orphanage and found a baby. I'm not able to have children myself, so I adopted her. She can do weird things. It scares me, but I got a letter from a man four years ago, Sirius as you call him. He said I needed to take care of her until it was safe to come get her. He says he was her father. I agreed to send him photos of Scarlett and to let him write Scarlett letters. He stopped writing a year or two ago."

"Her daughter?" Harry gasped.

"Yes. You can't come meet her though. She can't know. Sirius warned me about the danger she could be in if she met you."

"I understand…" Harry began trailing off into thought.

"She's home. I have to go." The lady hung up the phone, but Harry kept holding it up to his ear. He was too shocked to move.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, I have family. I have family left."

Hermione smiled, but realized what Harry may be thinking, so she responded in a stern voice, "Harry. We can't. Not now. We have horcruxes to find. Every minute we aren't searching. He's finding another way to win this war."

"I know, but please," Harry pleaded. "I have to see her. To know that it's real."

They quickly walked back to Ron, arguing the whole way.

"What's going on?" Ron bit into an apple as Harry and Hermione walked into the kitchen.

"Hermione was right. I have family."

"That's good, mate!" Ron set down his apple and patted Harry on the back. "Are you going to go see her?"

Hermione pushed her bushy hair out of her eyes. "No, he is not. We have to find the rest of the horcruxes then we can see her."

"Can I talk to you alone?" Ron asked Hermione, gesturing towards the door out of the kitchen.

They stepped into the hallway.

"Seeing her might give Harry some hope. It gives him a reason to keep fighting. It'll give him something too look toward to after this war is all done."

"But he has us."

"You saw how much he wanted to fight when Sirius was here. This could be another chance to motivate him."

Hermione bit her lip. "I suppose it's worth a shot. I'll stay here this time though. Don't let him do anything stupid."

Ron grinned and walked back into the kitchen. "Come on, mate. Let's go see Scarlett."

Harry smiled. "Floo I'm guessing?"

"Yep."

Harry and Ron walked to the fireplace as Hermione pulled out a jar of floo powder for them from her bag.

"Remember, be safe. Make sure no one sees you. Don't bring Scarlett back here."

"Got it, got it. Let's go, Harry."

Harry stepped into the fireplace with a handful of the powder in his fist. He pulled his arms close to his body and dropped the floo powder while saying "Salisbury."

Harry gazed around in wonder. He may not have had the best first experience using the floo powder, but he found it pretty fun. _I'll get off at the train station, I suppose._ Harry was getting ready to get off when he heard a noise coming from a nearby fireplace. "Scarlett! I'm heading off to work!"

Harry recognized the voice and quickly got off at that stop.

Unfortunately for Harry, there was a glass door covering the fireplace. Ron crashed in soon after him. Harry's face was squashed against the glass.

"Help!" Harry shrieked, attempting to push Ron off of him.

Footsteps thundered down some stairs and there was a scream.

The glass door was quickly flung open. Harry and Ron tumbled out.

"Who are you?" a girl's voice asked in fear.

Their eyes both shifted from her feet up to her face. The girl was wearing all black. Her hair was a light brown that rolled down her face in beautiful curls.

"Scarlett?" Harry gasped.

"H-how do you know my name…?"

The boys quickly stood up, brushing the dust off their clothes. "I'm Harry and this is my friend, Ron." Harry held out his hand to Scarlett.

Her face filled with disgust at Harry's dirty hand. "My mum is going to kill me. The house is such a mess now," she groaned.

"Sorry," Ron muttered.

"So… um… your father… um… Sirius-" Harry began, but was quickly cut off.

"My father's name isn't Sirius. His name is Christopher."

"No. It's not. His name is Sirius. You were adopted," Ron said bluntly.

"N-no. They would've told me if I was adopted."

Harry remained silent, but continued looking at her. Scarlett's face was red with frustration.

"I guess there's something I should show you, but I heard the man was bonkers… so I thought nothing of it. Follow me." She slowly started walking into a nearby room. The curls in her hair bounced with every step she took.

She led the boys into a neatly organized room with large shelves of books and a whole closet filled with dresses of every color. There was a picture sitting on her desk of her with- was that? Harry blinked his eyes to see if he was seeing it right. Was that a picture of a baby with a wand?! And it moved too.

"Oh I see you've noticed the picture of me with that old stick. It was a halloween costume when I was little. My mum put the video in a small portable screen," Scarlett mentioned while plopping a box onto the small bed in the corner of the room.

"Portable screen?" Ron whispered. "No wonder she hasn't got a clue about Sirius. These muggles are brainwashing her…"

"The key has to be around here somewhere…" Scarlett pulled books out of the shelves and opened them before quickly throwing them on the ground.

"Wha- what're you looking for?" Harry asked, watching the mess grow on the floor.

"I can't find the key. I had it in one of these books."

"Here, I'll get it." Harry walked over to the box and pulled his wand out of his pocket. "Alohomora." There was a clicking noise as the box unlocked. He popped the lid open and papers began falling out of the stuffed box.

"H-how'd you do that?!" she stared at Harry with her mouth agape.

"A lil' bit o' magic does the trick," Ron grinned.

"B-b-but- No. No. You're lying. Someone's lying." Scarlett fell to her knees and put her hands on her head. "He was literally in prison, he was insane. Maybe I'm the one who's insane," words of confusion flowed out her mouth.

"Shut up already. If you hadn't been living with this muggles, maybe you could've known all this."

"Ron, be nice!" Harry snapped as he read one of the letters. "Scarlett… he wasn't lying. All of this is true."

"But that means my mum's dead… No! Stop lying to me!"

"My parents are dead too. It's okay." Harry kneeled down next to Scarlett, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

"It's true… all of it?"

"Yeah. I know it's hard to believe."

"D-do you know my dad?"

"Yes. He is- was," Harry corrected himself, "my godfather."

"Was? Harry what happened?"

"He was killed by-" Harry choked back a tear.

"His cousin," Ron helped Harry out.

She looked at the ground. "Does this mean that that murderer is the only family I have left?"

"No. You have me," Harry put his hand on hers. "Sirius was my godfather."

Scarlett looked up at him and smiled.

"Harry, we should go. We need to check if Hermione needs us."

Harry stood up, still watching Scarlett.

"Can I come with you? If you are truly my only real family left, I want to be with you" Scarlett grabbed his hand.

"Not now. There's a war going on. I'll come after the war so that you're safe."

She smiled. "Promise?"

"Promise," Harry smiled back.

She walked them out the door and gave each of them a hug. "I'll be waiting. Thank you for coming. Both of you. It was so nice to meet you both, Harry and Rob."

Harry waved at her as they began to walk away.

Ron muttered his name as they headed down an alleyway to apparate back to Grimmauld Place.

Scarlett ran back inside and quickly began packing a bag of luggage. She began shoving her dresses in, but quickly changed her mind. She instead filled it with all of her old t-shirts and jeans. In the outermost pocket, she crammed in all of her letters.

A knock sounded on the door. "Coming!" she called. She dropped the remaining letters onto her bed and skipped to the door.

Harry woke up shaking in his blankets on the floor in Ron's room.

"I can't do this! I can't do this!" he screamed while holding his sweaty head. "I killed them! I killed them all!"

Feet pounded up the stairs.

"Harry, mate, calm down." Ron was leaning over the side of his bed, making sure that Harry was okay. Ron's eyes were still swollen from crying.

"Harry?!" the door flung open as Hermione and Ginny rushed in.

"Are you okay? What's going on?" Ginny asked, kneeling next to him and putting a hand on his back.

"I can't take it," Harry sobbed. "What I did t-to Fred, Tonks, Remus," his voice shook as he spat out the names of everyone who had died just a couple nights ago.

"It's not your fault, Harry. Calm down." Ginny wrapped her arms around him and he slowly quieted down.

Hermione sat next to Ron on his bed and intertwined her fingers in his. She looked at Ron. They'd been talking about this all day yesterday, but they figured today was as good as any day to do it and it might even help him.

"Harry," Hermione began. "Ron and I were thinking that maybe we could go get Scarlett tomorrow? We can take her over here to visit for a while."

Harry nodded his head then looked up at Ginny. "You'll come with?"

Ginny whispered 'yes' and leaned her forehead into his. "Everything is going to be okay."

Harry fell back asleep for only an hour with Ginny at his side. He woke again to images of Fred's limp body floating through his mind.

He quickly sat up and looked at Ginny as she lay there asleep. "I'll be back."

Harry spent the rest of the night doing everything he could to make himself look normal. He bathed himself, attempted to brush his messy hair into a somewhat neat style, and put on an old muggle suit that he had.

When everyone woke up, Harry was already downstairs eating breakfast.

George began to walk down the stairs, but when he saw someone else there, he went straight back to his room. He couldn't bare to look at anyone's faces. His best friend was dead and there was nothing he could ever do to change that.

Ginny walked down in a gold dress. "Harry? What happened? I woke up and you weren't there."

"Couldn't sleep." He bit into his toast to avoid talking more.

Hermione and Ron walked down in matching paint suits. "This is ridiculous, Hermione," Ron groaned. "How am I supposed to move my legs in these? They're like wood."

"We are dressing nice for the occasion, so shut it."

Harry smiled at them. "You ready?" he asked eagerly.

This was the first time Ginny had seen him smile in days. She walked to Harry and squeezed his shoulder. "Ready," she responded.

Harry grabbed Ginny's hand while Hermione grabbed Ron's and they apparated.

"This is it?" Ginny asked, looking at Harry. He nodded his head.

Ron went to the door first and knocked. A lady who Ron hadn't met before answered the door.

"What do you want?" her voice barely a whisper.

"We're here to see Scarlett," Harry said from behind Ron.

"She hasn't had visitors in a while. Her dad is out, so I suppose it'll be okay."

She led them through the house and into a back room, a different room than where Scarlett's bedroom had been.

Scarlett was sitting in the middle of the room in a rocking chair. Her body was slowly shaking.

"She hasn't been the same since that day, so be gentle."

Harry walked to Scarlett, his eyes already began to fill with tears.

"Scarlett?" Harry grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes. They were clouded over and she stared vacantly at the wall. "Scarlett… it's me, Harry."

Ginny walked up to Harry and put her hand on his shoulder.

"I-i told them y-y-you'd come S-s-sirius," she fumbled over her words, but her mouth showed a small smile. There were scars on her face and her hair had been cut short.

"N-no. I'm Harry." A tear rolled down his cheek.

"A-a-are y-ou going to t-t-t-t-each me m-magic, Sirius?" she tried to stand up, but fell back into the chair.

"I think that's enough," a new voice called.

Harry quickly jumped back, tears streaming from his eyes. "S-sorry."

There was a man at the door. His face was filled with rage at the sight of Harry's circular glasses and lightning bolt scar.

"You! You did this! My wife's dead. My daughter is gone. She's just a shell. They tracked you! They came here as soon as you left! My life is ruined!" the man lunged at Harry, but Ginny quickly grabbed him and apparated back to the burrow with Ron and Hermione on their tail.

Harry collapsed to the ground, crying.

"It's not your fault, Harry."

"Yes it is! I did this! I did this all!"

"She's still alive, Harry. She's not gone. There's still hope." Hermione tried to think of the positive as she watched her best friend drown in self hatred.

"I ruined her. I ruined everyone."

Harry didn't move from that spot for a full day. He lay there alone while Ginny returned to check on him every hour.

They still visit Scarlett every year during Christmas, but there's been no improvement.


End file.
